Now that we are in May, we are reflecting on Earth Month, looking at the origins of this important, annual event and shine the spotlight on a school that is walking their sustainable talk.
April is Earth Month and millions of people around the world also mark Earth Day, on April 22, to show their support for the environment. As the climate crisis becomes increasingly more serious, each Earth Day that comes along takes on greater significance.
The first Earth Day was the brainchild of US senator and environmentalist Gaylord Nelson and took place in 1970 to highlight the importance of clean air and water, following a 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. The event saw an astonishing 20 million people across the US taking to the streets – around 10 per cent of the country’s population at the time.
However, it could be argued that the stage had been set for change almost 10 years earlier, with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller, Silent Spring, in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links…